Initiative Design-CT Successfully Concludes: Leaving a Legacy of Innovative Digital Education
The Design-CT Erasmus+ initiative, which embarked on the mission to redefine digital education in schools, proudly announces the successful culmination of its journey in July of this year. This remarkable initiative has not only achieved its objectives but has also left an indelible mark on the world of education, empowering educators, and enriching the learning experiences of students of all ages.
Saarbruecken, September 2023
The final consortium meeting convened at the imc headquarters in Saarbrücken, Germany, marked a poignant moment in the project's history. It was an occasion to celebrate the project's significant accomplishments, engage in reflective discourse on the path traveled, and formally conclude this transformative chapter.
Design-CT has been nothing short of revolutionary, providing educators with a comprehensive platform that amalgamates an extensive array of resources while fostering an environment that nurtures creativity. Through the provision of diverse digital tools, resources, and innovative teaching methodologies, this initiative seamlessly integrated technology into classrooms, elevating the learning experience for students across various age groups.
As the final meeting in Saarbrücken facilitated a collective reflection on the impact of Design-CT, participants candidly shared not only their successes but also the challenges they encountered. It was a moment of growth and learning, underlining the invaluable experiences gained during this pioneering journey.
Rola Saygeh, research project manager at imc
Rola Sayegh, project lead and research project manager at imc, is very pleased with the project outcome and says:
“Design-CT unleashes everyone’s digital creativity, with interactive digital content created in less than 10 minutes! It is indeed an overdue AI-supported solution, especially designed for schools, teachers, and learners.”
While the Design-CT project has formally concluded, its legacy lives on through the platform available at www.design-ct.eu. This platform continues to be an invaluable resource for educational institutions, providing educators with ongoing access to a rich library of diverse digital resources and to an AI-supported authoring tool, the imc Express. Furthermore, it offers a series of training modules carefully tailored to educators at every level, catering to their varying levels of digital proficiency.
Finally, the consortium is thrilled to announce that this is not the end of the road. The Design-CT project serves as a springboard for the forthcoming "Open Teach C-Hub" project, set to launch in the upcoming school year 2023-2024. Building on the successful legacy of Design-CT and Open Teach (a European project promoting open educational resources and practices), this next venture will continue to push the boundaries of digital education in schools, empowering educators to thrive in the digital age.
More information
About the Design-CT project
Design-CT is a European project that supports teachers of all grade levels and digital competencies profiles to become creators and designers of their own digital and blended learning lessons. The Design-CT ecosystem offers a smart authoring tool supported with integrated didactical kits including, pedagogical templates, learning scenarios, apps, tools and resources to help teachers easily create their digital lessons and activities. The ecosystem offers design support and recommends learning content, so that teachers focus their time and effort on what they do best… guide their students’ learning journey. For more information, please visit the Design-CT website.
About the Consortium
Five partners from Germany, Portugal and Greece form the Design-CT consortium:
- imc information multimedia communication AG – imc, Germany
- Núcleo Interativo de Astronomia – NUCLIO, Portugal
- Ellinogermaniki Agogi Scholi Panagea Savva AE – EA, Greece
- Verein zur Förderung moderner Lernsysteme – Lernwelt, Germany
- Grundschule St. Ingbert Südschule - Südschule, Germany
Scheer Group companies prove to be strong partners, winning three of the sixteen Gaia-X projects
The award for MERLOT, POSSIBLE and Gaia-X RESCUE facilitates broad engagement in key flagship projects of the European Cloud Initiative
Saarbruecken, 02 July 2021
Gaia-X is a European project to develop a competitive, secure, and reliable data infrastructure for Europe, involving representatives from industry, science, and administration. The objective is to develop and provide applications that leverage the opportunities of modern cloud technology while guaranteeing data sovereignty for all users. Scheer Group companies and the August-Wilhelm Scheer Institute are now among the selected project partners for the Gaia-X flagship projects MERLOT, POSSIBLE and Gaia-X RESCUE.
Innovative and practical applications and dataspaces in the digital Gaia-X ecosystem receive funding from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). Project partners must ensure the technological viability of new applications, as well as their economic feasibility and security. As the umbrella company for the Scheer Group companies, Scheer Holding has already been involved in Gaia-X since the autumn of 2019.
Prof. Dr. August-Wilhelm Scheer
“Gaia-X is an ambitious project. It involves the development of data infrastructure of the next generation. This is the foundation for secure, transparent, and controllable data provision in Europe. Data economy needs this foundation to thrive. The key vision of Gaia-X is to make the value of the data obvious and tangible. Right from the start, making Gaia-X come to life and provide an experience through innovative applications has always been key for us,” Prof. August-Wilhelm Scheer, Sole Shareholder and Managing Director of Scheer Holding explains.
The MERLOT, POSSIBLE and Gaia-X-RESCUE projects at a glance
- MERLOT – ‘Marketplace for lifelong educational dataspaces and smart service provisioning’ – focuses on innovative developments in the education sector. Dataspaces and services with superior security are created, which can be accessed via marketplaces within the Gaia-X ecosystem.
- POSSIBLE – ‘Phoenix open software stack for interoperable engagement in dataspaces’ – aims to develop an innovative and user-friendly cloud solution for the public sector. For instance, applications for the education sector, medium-sized companies and administration bodies are developed and implemented to facilitate secure data exchange.
- Gaia-X-RESCUE seeks innovative data solutions for a smart fire brigade. It revolves around the collection, analysis, and distribution of data in rescue services, implemented via secure dataspaces in the cloud. inspirient GmbH, a start-up investee of Scheer Holding, is participating in this project.
“I am delighted that the jury approved of our innovative partners and ideas for the MERLOT, POSSIBLE and Gaia-X RESCUE projects, especially in relation to the public sector including education,” says Dr. Sabine Wilfling, Unit Lead Public Government, Scheer GmbH. “Quickly applying Gaia-X in precisely those areas across all regions is crucial.”
imc has taken the lead in the MERLOT consortium
Scheer Holding company imc AG is leading the consortium for the MERLOT project. The other consortium partners are: August-Wilhelm Scheer Institute, edu-sense gGmbH, Hasso-Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering, Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, IBM Deutschland GmbH, International Dataspaces Association e.V., IServ GmbH, Schülerkarriere GmbH, Technical University of Kaiserslautern, 1& IONOS SE.
Bechtle AG leads the consortium for POSSIBLE. The consortium partners are: August-Wilhelm Scheer Institute, Dataport AöR, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, imc information multimedia communication AG, Univention GmbH, 1&1 IONOS SE.
Safety io GmbH leads the consortium for Gaia-X RESCUE, which also comprises: Alice&Bob.company GmbH, Berlin Fire Brigade, Free University of Berlin, University of Applied Sciences, inspirient GmbH (Scheer Group), sysEleven GmbH.
Further information
Find out more about Gaia-x
With more than 20 years experience, 12 international locations and 300 employees, imc is the leading full-service provider for digital training. Experts in the fields of technology, e-learning content and strategy work hand in hand to provide holistic and customized e-learning solutions - worldwide. 1,200+ commercial enterprises, government organisations and educational institutes with over 5 million users around the world rely on imc's holistic and bespoke solutions.
Research at imc: Making teachers around the world fit for digital lessons
The imc AG research team is working on digital teacher training and professional development in not one, but two new projects. imc coordinates the projects which both receive EU funding under the Erasmus+ programme.
Saarbruecken, 19.04.2021
The imc InnoLabs team firmly believes that schools can only be successfully digitalised if teachers are trained in handling and utilising digital media and learning content. Thus, the team is leading two international research projects with this objective, collaborating with European project partners from educational institutions, industry and business. The focus is on high-quality open education resources and their creation by teachers. Both projects receive EU funding under the Erasmus+ programme.
Automated recommendations for better content
The Design-CT project launched on 1 April 2021 aims to support teachers at all grade levels to create digital learning content that is pedagogically sound. The project helps teachers obtain a range of digital competences. These are conveyed through the training programme and pedagogic digital kits, as well as an intelligent ecosystem.
For instance, teachers will receive automated recommendations and design suggestions when they create training courses and resources. To this end, the existing “Lernwelt” platform based on the imc Learning Suite, the learning management system by imc, is extended.
Communities of Practice for greater exchange
The second project is called Open Teach. It was launched in October 2020 and offers a platform for teachers focusing on STEAM subjects at junior and senior high school level. The Open Teach project aims to drive research on high-quality open education resources and processes, as well as the implementation and evaluation thereof.
It offers teachers practical online courses on open education resources and processes, and provides them with a collection of quality-assured open education resources. Moreover, the project seeks to create a transnational Community of Practice where teachers can actively exchange ideas and share tried and tested content. The platform builds on the imc Learning Suite with relevant extensions.
Rola Sayegh, Research Project Manager at imc
Rola Sayegh has been part of the InnoLabs team since 2018 and acts as project lead for both projects. She says: “We are thrilled that both applications were approved.
Maintaining continuous contact with universities, research institution and other companies and researching topics such as these is of great importance to us. Teacher training is a matter particularly close to our hearts, and we are excited about advancing these topics together with our project partners and contributing the expertise we gained from corporate learning.”
Additional information
Project partners at a glance:
Design CT
imc AG - Koordinator
NUCLIO Núcleo Interactivo de Astronomia (Non-profit NGO for teachers' training, Portugal)
EA Ellinogermaniki Agogi (School with R&D department, Greece)
Lernwelt - Verein zur Förderung moderner Lernsysteme (Germany)
SÜDSCHULE - Grundschule St. Ingbert Südschule (Germany)
Open Teach
imc AG - Koordinator
USAAR - University of Saarland, EduTech Department (Germany)
EA Ellinogermaniki Agogi (School with R&D department, Greece)
NUCLIO Núcleo Interactivo de Astronomia (Non-profit NGO for teachers' training, Portugal)
Find out more about imc's research projects.
With more than 20 years experience, 12 international locations and 300 employees, imc is the leading full-service provider for digital training. Experts in the fields of technology, e-learning content and strategy work hand in hand to provide holistic and customized e-learning solutions - worldwide. 1,200+ commercial enterprises, government organisations and educational institutes with over 5 million users around the world rely on imc's holistic and bespoke solutions.
